Lawsuit follows implementation of NYC’s sodium mandate
It was only a matter of time before someone took legal action against New York’s sodium-warning-label ruling.
The mandate, requiring chain restaurants to post warning icons next to menu items containing 2,300 milligrams of sodium or more, took effect Dec. 1, 2015. That same week, the National Restaurant Association (NRA) filed suit against the city’s Department of Health over the decision, asserting it is another in a series of burdensome, costly and unnecessary regulations the city has heaped upon local restaurateurs.
Instead, the NRA favors the Food and Drug Administration’s national menu-labeling standard, which is set to take effect in December 2016.
“Consumers should have the same access to nutrition information from Portland, Maine, to Portland, Ore.,” the NRA said on its website.
‘Excessive’ tobacco tax boost proposed in California
Big Tobacco and health advocates are at odds again over a proposed $2-per-pack increase that’s likely to appear on California’s November ballot, San Jose Mercury News reports.
Just more than three years ago, California voters rejected a $1-per-pack increase to the state’s cigarette tax, but polls show the public currently favors the $2-per-pack tax by more than 2-to-1, the newspaper reports.
If approved, California’s cigarette tax would go from 87 cents per pack to $2.87 per pack, pushing the state into the top 10 highest tobacco taxes in the country.
“We are opposed to large, excessive cigarette tax increases like this one,” Altria spokesman David Sutton told the San Jose Mercury News.
The tax increase would also include electronic cigarettes for the first time.
Indonesia sugar tax idea falls flat with beverage industry
The world’s fourth most populous nation is exploring a tax on drinks with added sugar—unwelcome news for the beverage industry.
The tax “could be crippling for an industry that’s just getting started,” Martin Gil, head of PT Coca-Cola Indonesia, told The Wall Street Journal. He said it could be the beginning of a “slippery slope where anything that contains sugar” could be taxed.
At $6 billion in sales last year, Indonesia’s bottled-beverage industry remains relatively small, according to market research firm Euromonitor International.
Proponents of the tax cite potential health benefits, saying higher prices will cut consumption of sugary drinks. Indonesians consumed an average of 14.4 grams of sugar a day in 2014, below the Asia-Pacific average of 16.5 and the global average of 35.9, according to Euromonitor. However, annual growth in Indonesia’s sugar consumption is at 5.7%, faster than the regional average of 5.2% and the 2.2% global average.
A tax rate has yet to be proposed, officials and lawmakers said.
Indicators
- A new ordinance in Seattle will allow all taxi drivers, including for-hire cabs, taxi companies and app-based on-demand firms such as Uber and Lyft, to unionize. Companies such as Uber typically classify their drivers as independent contractors to avoid paying their drivers benefits, CNN reports.
- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is giving food industry groups until May 10 to weigh in on what “natural” should denote on product labels, the political website The Hill reports. Comments were originally due Feb. 10.
- 13 —Number of states raising minimum wage in 2016, according to CNBC. Wage increases range from 35 cents an hour in Michigan to $1 in California, Massachusetts and Nebraska.
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